Mark Cohen

CURRENT RESEARCH

The most famous and successful collectors of 1960s Pop art, Robert and Ethel Scull were also the most polarizing. I am writing their biography for Cornell U. Press.

They were among the first to collect Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, but their Bronx manners embarrassed the Jews who had quietly become the greatest collectors and dealers in America's art world.

The Sculls rocked the boat. Their art made them rich and they became America's first collector celebrities.

The art market was never the same.

BOOKS

Not Bad for Delancey Street: The Rise of Billy Rose (Brandeis U. Press, 2018), the first biography of the master showman and Jewish philanthropist in fifty years. "This meticulously researched, probing and affectionate biography, Cohen grants Billy Rose the revival he deserves." — Janis Freedman Bellow, Tufts University

Overweight Sensation: The life and comedy of Allan Sherman (Brandeis U. Press, 2013). "A remarkably well-researched, passionately written story of quite nearly tragic proportions." — Eric Alterman, author and The Nation columnist.

Missing A Beat: The Rants and Regrets of Seymour Krim (Syracuse U. Press, 2010). "Mark Cohen has done an excellent job of placing Krim in an historical and literary context." — Phillip Lopate, editor, The Art of the Personal Essay

Last Century of a Sephardic Community: The Jews of Monastir, 1839-1943 (Foundation for Sephardic Studies, 2003). "This is a welcomed contribution." Rachel Simon, Princeton University